Beijing: China had over 123 million people aged over 65 in 2011 constituting about 9.1 percent of the total population, an official report said on Saturday.

Chinese seniors aged 80 or above are expected to make up 30 percent of the population aged 65 or above in 2050, state- run Xinhua, said quoting participants at symposium on health issues relating to the aged population.

The ratio of working-aged Chinese to the country's seniors will drop from 10:1 in 2000 to 2.8:1 by 2050, the report said.

China's ageing population is increasing rapidly while country's birth rate remains low. It is estimated that the percentage of China's ageing population will reach 16.7 percent of total population in next five years, the CNWCA said.

According to international standards, a country or region is considered to have an "ageing society" when the number of people at and above 60 reaches 10 per cent or more of its total population.

Besides grim prospects of rapid increase old population, China which has a population of about 1.34 billion is weighed down by low birth rate as a result of one Child policy.

The annual growth is slowing down from 1.07 percent to 0.57 per cent in last decade.

According to latest population census 16.6 per cent of the country's population was aged 14 or younger, which was 6.29 percentage points lower than that in the 2000 census.

China's ageing population and the deteriorating natural environment will constrain economic growth, Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics has said.

China's "demographic dividend" has decreased as the population is ageing fast, and environmental problems will continue, he said while addressing China Development Forum here recently. Both factors will hamper the country's economic growth, Ma said.